Setup

The setup is basically to preseed the network configuration (as the installer would otherwise ask for the settings over the serial port) and enable network console so the installation can be done over ssh.

preseed.cfg

The following preeseed.cfg is placed in the root of the initrd and used by the installer:

Once everything is done you can ssh to the installer with login: installer, password: install. The installer uses UTF-8 for output, so remember to configure your term for a UTF-8 locale before running ssh, otherwise some of the graphical characters will be screwed up, E.G:

LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 xterm -e ssh installer@192.168.1.80

Replace en_US.UTF-8 with whatever UTF-8 locale you have installed (check with locale -a).

Remember to install ssh, otherwise you won't be able to connect to your system once it's installed!

Customizations

For simple customizations (E.G. network setup) you can simply modify the precompiled initrd (byteswap it back, gunzip it and mount -o loop it so you can edit /preseed.cfg). For bigger customizations you can recompile the installer (make build_lart_netboot). See http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Build for information about this.

Notice that the debian-installer doesn't support cross compilation, so you need a working debian/arm system running unstable for this!